Claude's MCP connector is not ZDR-eligible; what that means for Sume

The Claude API's MCP connector page says the feature is not eligible for zero data retention (ZDR) and is not available on Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud. If either of those is a hard requirement for your deployment, you cannot reach Sume's hosted MCP through that connector. The fallback that Sume documents is its REST API at https://api.sume.com/v1, which your own backend can call directly while the model only decides what to ask for.

What the connector page says

The same page says the connector uses OAuth bearer tokens and supports per-tool allowlists and denylists. It shows beta header mcp-client-2025-11-20 and marks mcp-client-2025-04-04 deprecated. The API release notes mention a different header; see the header post for that discrepancy.

What Sume offers on each path

Sume's hosted MCP is a remote HTTP endpoint at https://mcp.sume.com/mcp. OAuth is the preferred path for interactive clients, and the API key path is the one for automation. Under OAuth, mcp:read sees read-only tools, and mcp:write is a consent toggle that exposes the paid and write tools. There is no mcp:paid scope. The Sume docs say nothing about the Claude connector or about ZDR, so this post makes no claim about either.

The media tools you would expose

The paid media tools on the hosted server include generate_image, generate_video, music_create, tts_create and stt_create, plus the read tools jobs_status, jobs_wait and jobs_result. Paid and write calls need an idempotency_key. Use dry_run and max_spend_usd to cap a spend. Image 1.0 and Video 1.0 are REST-only and are not in tools_list.

Decision rule

• Need ZDR or Bedrock or Google Cloud with Claude: do not use the connector. Call the Sume REST API from your own tool code.
• Anthropic API with the connector allowed: use OAuth bearer tokens and an allowlist of the Sume tools you want.
• Always confirm the connector's current limits on the linked page, because they are beta features that change.

A backend pattern without the connector

If the connector is off the table, give the model ordinary function tools whose handlers call Sume's REST API. The model chooses the arguments, and your server holds the key and applies the same safeguards: an Idempotency-Key on submits, a bounded poll loop on GET /v1/jobs/{id}/status, and a webhook for long work. Sume documents async and webhook modes for this.

The trade is that you write and maintain the tool definitions yourself. In return, the key never leaves your server, and you decide what the model can reach.